Vice-Admiral Peter Jansen Wessel Tordenskiold (28 October 1690 – 12 November 1720) was a Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy officer. Born in Trondheim, he travelled to Copenhagen in 1704 and eventually joined the Dano-Norwegian navy, rising to the rank of vice-admiral for his actions during the Great Northern War. This was also the orthographical form which he used. In newer times, the form has become usual.

Biography

Born in Trondheim in Norway, he was the tenth child of alderman Jan Wessel and the brother of later Rear-Admiral . Peter Wessel was a wild, unruly lad who gave his pious parents much trouble, He befriended the king's chaplain, Peder Jespersen, who sent Wessel on a voyage to the West Indies and finally procured a vacant cadetship for him. After further voyages, this time to the East Indies, Wessel was appointed second lieutenant in the Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy on 7 July 1711 and went on to serve on the frigate Postillion. While on Postillion, he befriended Norwegian admiral baron Waldemar Løvendal,

Early service

Wessel started his navy service during the Great Northern War against Sweden, cruising about the Swedish coast in Ormen picking up useful information about the enemy.

The Great Northern War had now entered its later stage when Sweden, beset on every side by foes, employed her fleet principally to transport troops and stores to the distressed Swedish Pomerania provinces. The audacity of Wessel impeded her at every point. He was continually snapping up transports, dashing into the fjords where her vessels lay concealed and holding up her detached frigates.

When he heard about the incident, an infuriated Frederick IV of Denmark ordered the Admiralty to court-martial Wessel. In November 1714, Wessel stood trial, accused of disclosing vital military information (his lack of ammunition) to the enemy, as well as endangering a ship of the Crown by engaging a superior warship. Wessel defended himself vigorously and blamed his comrades, impressing Frederick IV; arguing that a section of the naval code mandated attacking fleeing enemy ships no matter their size, he was acquitted on 15 December. Wessel subsequently requested a promotion from the King and was made captain on 28 December. as well as the frigate Hvita Örn (White Eagle), which he was granted as his new flagship under the name Hvide Ørn. He then transferred to the main fleet under the command of Peter Raben.

The duel was encouraged by a dispute with von Holstein, whom Tordenskiold offended by labeling him as a cheat at gambling. At a dinner party, Tordenskiold told of a friend who had been cheated while gambling with a man who claimed to own a Hydra, to which von Holstein announced he was the owner of the said creature and took offence at being called a cheat. This dispute turned into a fight, in which von Holstein unsuccessfully tried to pull a sword, after which Tordenskiold used the pommel of his own sword to beat him up. von Holstein demanded satisfaction through a duel. The details of the duel – besides its ending with Tordenskiold's death by a single wound by von Holstein's sword – are not well known.

Tordenskiold's corpse was brought to Copenhagen to the Holmen Church without much ceremony, as duelling was not allowed according to Danish law. In 1819, he was buried in a sarcophagus. and the Norwegian national anthem "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" from 1864.

Statues of him have been erected in Copenhagen (1876), Trondheim, Stavern, Oslo and Haakonsvern. In the United States, Tordenskjold Township in the state of Minnesota was settled in 1871 by Danish brothers who named it after him. The coat of arms of Holmestrand included his ship until the municipal merger in 2020, after which a new coat of arms was introduced.

The Royal Danish Navy has named several ships after him, including an early 20th century coastal defence ship. The Niels Juel class corvette , served from around 1980 to August 2009. The Royal Norwegian Navy has also named ships after him, such as the coastal defence ship Tordenskjold, and the Royal Norwegian Naval Training Establishment in Bergen is named KNM Tordenskjold.

The Danish city of Frederikshavn has hosted an annual summer festival in his memory since 1998. Tordenskiold was stationed there and wrote 67 letters from there between 1717 and 1719. In 2008, the Festival attracted more than 30,000 visitors. In 2009, the Days of Tordenskiold were celebrated on 26, 27, and 28 June.

Several Danish and Norwegian cities have streets named Tordenskjoldsgade (Tordenskjold Street) after him.

The most popular brand of matches in Denmark is called Tordenskjold. In the late 1800s, Sweden had a large export production of matches, so a Danish manufacturer put Tordenskiold's portrait on his matchbox in 1882, in the hope he could once more strike at the Swedish ().

In fiction

Though his victories were not decisive during the war, he eventually attained mythic status as one of the most successful Dano-Norwegian military commanders. As the Danish-Norwegian Union ended in 1814 with the Treaty of Kiel and Denmark consigned itself to the status of a minor power following the Napoleonic Wars, Tordenskiold was revived as both a Danish and Norwegian national symbol. He was portrayed as the little guy outsmarting his far more powerful adversaries, and his exploits were enhanced by mixing in myths and fiction.

A comprehensive fictionalized account was collected in the 1858 popular song "Jeg vil sjunge om en Helt", and a great number of fictional plays and novels were subsequently published. and the 1942 film "Tordenskjold går i land". In 1993, the two-act musical Tordenskjold opened, a mix of fact and fiction, with Øystein Wiik as Peter Wessel. The musical was performed in Gladsaxe and Aarhus. The 2016 film "Satisfaction 1720" is another mix of fact, fiction, and speculation about Tordenskjold after the Great Northern War and the duel that ended his life.

One of the myths about Tordenskjold has entered the Danish and Norwegian languages. During the negotiations for Marstrand's surrender in 1719, it is told that Tordenskjold's men moved from block to block as he walked the Marstrand commander through his positions, thus convincing the commander that his strength was much greater than it was. This gave birth to the idiom "Tordenskjold's soldiers" (),